Source: Domain Queensland unit owners could soon be forced to sell their homes against their will if 75 per cent of the neighbours in their block agree. And even if the "forced sale" vote threshold is not reached, individual owners and body corporates will be able to appeal to a District Court to push their plans through, under proposed changes to apartment laws. The forced sales proposals are the centrepiece of wide-ranging plans to update the Body Corporate and Communi...

Source:  CoreLogic Home values increased  with values 2.7% higher over the three months to December 2016 and 10.9% through 2016 Home values were 2.7% higher over the final quarter of 2016 with Adelaide the only capital city to record a decline in values over the quarter Throughout the 2016 calendar year, dwelling values increased by 10.9% which was their greatest calendar year increase since 2009 Across the individual capital cities, the annual change in h...

Source:  CoreLogic
Capital gains accelerated over the past year, taking the calendar year growth rate to the fastest pace since 2009, according to the December CoreLogic Home Value Index. December 2016 saw capital city dwelling values rise by 1.4%, taking the annual capital gain for 2016 to 10.9%; the highest  growth rate for a calendar year since 2009.  Factoring in gross rental yields and capital gains, housing as an asset class, earned a total annual return of ...

Source:  CoreLogic As commodity prices and mining investment has sunk, demand for housing in mining areas has also slowed. This week we take a look at the performance of some of the major mining towns. Mining towns and regions across the country have been hard hit as investment and commodity prices have slumped.  This week we're looking at how the housing market has performed in terms of the volume and median price of sales across these regions.  The results indi...

Source:  Australian Property Journal   OVERSUPPLY of new residential property led by Brisbane, Sydney and to a lesser extent, Melbourne, will push rental growth down in the year ahead. SQM Research's Housing Boom and Bust Report forecasts Brisbane and Sydney will be affected more than Melbourne, which will have its oversupply tempered by population growth. The report expects apartment completions in Brisbane will fall by 11% in 2017 to 8,000 apartments, before ri...

Brisbane's home prices saw a 3.1% rise for the past 12 months, according to the latest Queensland Market Monitor report produced by the Real Estate Institute of Queensland. Here's all their latest numbers for settled and confirmed sales to the end of June: The past 12 months saw a median house sale price of $500,000 in Brisbane, retaining our spot as the third most affordable capital city behind just Hobart and Adelaide Brisbane's median apartment price dipped 1.2...

After many months of lobbying for the Queensland Government to withdraw their newly introduced transfer duty surcharge on foreign investment, the property industry has lost their battle. "As announced in the State Budget 2016-17, additional duty of 3% will apply to acquisitions of residential land by foreign persons (including companies and trusts) from 1 October 2016."   Queensland Government What does this mean for foreign investors? For an investment property with...

Source:  API The housing market has seen a significant surge in the number of high-rise units approved for construction, new ABS data has shown. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) this week published building approvals data for July 2016 detailing a record-high number of high-rise approvals in recent years. Throughout the month, the market experienced the second highest monthly number of approvals on record, with 20,987 dwellings approved for construction nationally 11...

Source: CoreLogic Housing finance data for July 2016 was released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) earlier today.  The release showed that the total value of mortgage lending in July 2016 was recorded at $31.8 billion which was -1.8% lower compared to the $32.4 billion worth of mortgage lending in June 2016.  The value of mortgage lending is now -4.1% lower than its peak of $33.2 billion recorded in April 2015.  With home values continuing to rise it would te...

ATO requires clearance certificate for sales over $2 million The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has introduced a new rule which affects investors who plan to purchase or sell a property with a market value of $2 million or more. Announced in 2013 and legislated this year, the change was introduced to ensure foreign residents meet their capital gains tax (CGT) obligations. Effective from the 1st of July 2016, the new withholding rule requires Australian residents who are selling a p...